1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to digital audio and video data transmission, and in particular, to transmitting multiple channels of digital audio and video data over serial data links.
2. Background
In today's technologically demanding society, there is a growing need to transmit and receive electronic data more efficiently. To that end, several means of transmitting and receiving electronic data currently exist. A packet-switched network system or circuit-switched network system, for instance, provides some of the most common methods of transmitting and receiving electronic data. It should be noted, however, that transmission errors may exist in any kind of data transmission. A packet-switched network, for instance, can be affected by transmission errors such as loss of packets.
Transmission errors can severely hinder the efficiency of data transmission. Consider, for instance, a situation where a data packet is lost during data transmission. This is a relatively frequent problem encountered in packet switched networks. In such a case, the problem may be more complex than it may seem initially. When a data packet is lost during transmission, not only the data in the packet is affected, but also the data in other packets transmitted during the same transmission is affected. This is because data packets are generally transmitted in an organized sequence and that loss of one packet may affect the sequence of data transmission for the entire sequence of packets. As a result, a transmission error causing loss of one packet may further render all subsequent packets out of order and therefore useless.
To combat this kind of situation, several means of detecting, correcting or combination of both have been introduced. For instance, one of the most common methods of reducing transmission errors is to add certain control data bits, such as check sum bits or parity bits, in data packets during data transmission. It should be noted that, however, while this method of adding control data bits can help minimize transmission errors, it may not be desirable in all situations. For example, although a parity bit scheme could be used to detect certain transmission errors, it may not be able to detect errors in which an even number of bits in the same data unit are changed due to electrical noise.
Furthermore, these error detection and/or correction methods provide the same level of protection to the entire length of data, without assigning any particular importance to a particular section of data, which may represent a critical part of the data. As a result, data packets using some of the known transmission error detection and/or correction methods are unnecessarily bulky, thereby reducing the rate of transmission. Some network systems, therefore, use the type of communication medium that allows greater bandwidth, such as fiber optics, rather than using the traditional metal cables. However, one of the disadvantages of fiber optics is that they are very expensive to install and maintain. Furthermore, fiber optics are very fragile, and as such, are difficult to split. Thus, use of fiber optics, in many situations, can be uneconomical.
A packet-switched system may be used for transmitting and receiving audio or video data in real-time. In such a situation, any transmission error can cause significant impact on the audio or video receiver, and may result in a transmission delay. The delay can cause severe impact on the quality of the output audio or video data. This is significant since many devices today rely on real-time communication of data. An audio mixer, for example, is a device that typically relies on real-time communication of data. An audio mixer allows multiple audio sources (i.e., input data channels) to be individually controlled and added together (hence the name “mixer”) to produce one or more audio outputs suitable for broadcast to many users. Audio mixers are used today in a variety of applications, providing many functions, including, among others, transmitting, receiving, recording, enhancing, and presenting audio data. Any data transmission problems, such as loss or delay of data packets, may result in the reduced functionality of the audio mixer.
Thus, there exists a need for a system and method of transmitting and receiving data efficiently, reliably, and economically. In particular, there exists a need for a system and method of transmitting and receiving digital audio and video data. There exists a further need for a system and method of enhancing the functionalities of devices that transmit and receive digital audio and video data. There exists yet a further need for a system and method of providing an error-tolerant system that allows transmission of real-time, high quality, multi-channel audio and video data as well as generic digital data over any serial data link.